GOP Prez Candidate Brownback supports forced pregnancy for raped women

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press

TAYLORS, S.C. — Sen. Sam Brownback, campaigning for president on Saturday before the National Catholic Men's Conference, questioned whether rape victims should get abortions.

"Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped?" the Kansas Republican asked at the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers gathering."We need to protect innocent life. Period," Brownback said, bringing the crowd of about 500 to its feet.

The GOP Presidential Primary is a cesspool, but this guy really takes the cake. I have to admit, I’ve been too dismissive of the inroads being made by the Right when it comes to Women’s Reproductive Rights these last few years. If a candidate for President can say something like this, disregarding the fact that he’s a 2nd tier candidate at best, then the terms of the Abortion Debate have swung too far back to the Right. Speeches like this are the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

I’ve been trying to come up with an analogy that could demonstrate what this must sound like to a woman who’s been raped. I figured there had to be some hypothetical situation that I could use to illustrate to a man what it must be like to carry a rapist’s seed to term. But there is no analogy. Which is why asshats like Brownback can make these speeches to the National Catholic Men’s Conference and nobody will make a peep about it.

I’m sure it’s much easier to deposit campaign donation checks than it is to contemplate the horror of being raped, impregnated against your will, and having to raise that child alone. Because when it comes down to it, there are only two constituencies that matter in the Republican party: Big Business and collections of embryonic cells that may or may not someday become fetuses. Everybody else? You’re on your own. It’s an Ownership Society, bitches.